Ben Ingham’s  speech
It is not everyday that you hear an independent councillor offering a commitment on behalf of several other independents to deliver a series of outcomes that the Conservative Party have failed to provide. But that is exactly what you are listening to.

If elected, this is what Independent Councillors supported by the East Devon Alliance will seek to do when elected:
We will control future development by
1. Making adoption of the East Devon Local Plan the councils main priority, forcing a successful provision at the very earliest opportunity
2. Creating a new committee to guide and control planning strategy to make sure East Devon never finds itself in its current position again; floundering desperately without a local plan
3. Challenging proposed developments that do not directly serve local needs or meet the nature and character of their surroundings
4. Ensuring permission is only given to development that includes the necessary infrastructure to support it
5. Working with Town and Parish Councils to implement their Neighbourhood Plans in order to prevent strengthen protection against inappropriate development
6. Lobbying national government to amend the National Planning Policy Framework to include a presumption against any development on agricultural land classified as grades 1, 2 and 3.
7. Seeking definition of “sustainability” to include available school places, full life health-care provision and the impact of increased traffic congestion

We will improve standards of conduct, accountability and transparency by
1. Adoption of the Seven Principles of Public Life set out by Lord Nolan in 1995: selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership within the council constitution
2. Separating Overview of Future Strategy and Scrutiny of Council Decisions into two separate committees.
3. Ensuring all councillors comply with the Probity in Planning guidelines issued by the Local Government Association and Planning Advisory Service
4. Reviewing the processes by which complaints against Councillors and officers are dealt with to ensure they are more publicly accountable for their conduct
5. Reforming the Council organisation structure away from the cabinet and portfolio holders and replacing it with committees.
6. Aligning the Council constitution to conform with guidance from the Information Commissioner and the Local Government Ombudsman
7. An immediate repeal of the public speaking restrictions
8. Introducing the recording and telecasting of all meetings
9. Amending the constitution so that all votes will be recorded by an electronic voting system to ensure everyone knows how Councillors have voted
10. Amend the EDDC constitution to require confidential information in planning applications to be separated out into appendices that can be easily redacted to allow non-confidential parts to be discussed in public
11. Compliance and enforcement of Planning Conditions within the remit of the Planning Department with appropriate resourcing
12. Ensuring all planning applications are dealt with in a timely manner and with regular feedback to Town or Parish Councils on any delays
13. Ensuring all town and substantial Parish Councils in becoming Quality Councils with Society of Local Council Clerks qualified clerks.
14. Converting the Asset Management Forum into a formal Council committee which will be subject to openness and transparency legislation

We will stimulate the local economy by
1. Offering greater support to start-ups and small businesses throughout East Devon and ensuring that the entrepreneurial spirit once more becomes a vibrant part of our communities
2. Where appropriate, seeking to secure more employment sites in the towns of East Devon to provide a greater range of employment opportunities for the young and improve their wage expectations
3. Diversifying the local economy in order to raise the average wage and household income within East Devon by encouraging new business ventures such as light manufacturing
4. Implementing an immediate review of development for our towns and the creation of a coherent long-term strategy for a prosperous future
5. Providing free car parking in town car parks every Saturday and for the entire month of December across the District
6. Lobbying national government to remove VAT on Tourist accommodation and Tourism related services, as already happens in other European countries

We will deliver value for money by
1. Freezing plans to demolish the existing district Council offices and the sale of the Knowle site with associated Council assets
2. Assessing how the existing Knowle site and Exmouth Town Hall can accommodate modern offices and mixed accommodation at a genuinely neutral cost
3. Assessment of on going projects and staffing levels to ensure they are affordable and commensurate with district priorities
4. Restricting council recruitment and requiring all new posts to be agreed at Full Council

We will stand up for local services by
1. Taking the lead in bringing together health boards, local doctors and patients to keep open small local hospitals
2. Developing a local strategy to improve the provision of care for the elderly, especially dementia patients, who are often forced to cope in situations that are just not acceptable

We will protect the natural environment by
1. Following the lead of the Devon Wildlife Trust and others to ensure that we protect our precious environment and its wildlife
2. Maintaining the existing nature reserves and seek ways to further protect wildlife and habitats
3. Considering proposals for a new National Park within East Devon
4. Ensuring that environmental legislation is scrupulously observed in all planning applications

We will be Setting a New Standard by
1. Putting the hopes and aspirations of the people of East Devon first
2. Looking after East Devon’s interests above everything else, totally irrespective of who forms our National Government
3. Making sure district projects and strategies have the support of the people of East Devon by two way communications before spending their money
4. Protecting our beautiful countryside from unnecessary development
5. Providing better local employment opportunities for young people
6. Securing a better quality of life for everyone in East Devon
7. Ensuring that East Devon’s future favours everyone living and working here, not just an elite few

For many years now, throughout the UK, the three main national political parties have been telling us what they want to do instead of listening and then delivering what we need to have. People are so fed up with this that they have even been voting for the nationalist parties as an alternative. This has happened in Northern Ireland, Wales and most recently in Scotland to alarming concern. Now it has reached England. This has happened at European, national and county elections. Now it is about to happen at district elections, even here in East Devon.

These alternative parties prey on people’s gravest fears and subconscious.

They preach division and separation instead of unity, respect and understanding. I suggest our grandparents and great-grandparents would be ashamed to even listen to their filth. What sort of alternative is that? Well, it does not have to be like that. Here in East Devon we do have alternatives. And we have done everything we can to make them credible to the eyes of the people of East Devon. Claire Wright is standing as an Independent parliamentary candidate. Here, the East Devon Alliance of Independent candidates and Independent councillors have a very definite set of ideas on offer.

I suggest to you that our campaign is like a breath of fresh air in a stagnant room. So over the next few weeks all of us in East Devon should open the windows to change, breathe in deeply and take part in the most exciting political event to happen in East Devon for decades.

Thank you for listening.